What an unusual family! Would you let them live in your neighborhood? The circumstances of their marriage were certainly remarkable — the young bride already with child. And then there was the whole business of their tromping off to Egypt — not what normal people (the “right kind” of people) do. It invites us to ask whether there are any “normal” families. I think, if there are, they must be quite abnormal — since every family has its own unique history and its own unique (read: strange) members.

The Holy Family was not normative — just holy. And that’s what every family is called to be, if “holiness” is a divine characteristic that also goes by the name “love.” So, may all families be holy, according to the word of St. John: “Let us love one another” (1 Jn 4:7).